A.M. Vitals: Vertex CEO Emmens, Amgen CEO Sharer to Retire Next Year

By Katherine Hobson

Drug-Company Changes: Matthew Emmens, the CEO of Vertex — which this year won approval for a hepatitis C drug — will leave that job Feb. 1 and will be replaced by Jeffrey Leiden, the WSJ reports. Emmens will become executive chairman through May, when he’ll retire but will remain a director of the company, the paper says. Meantime, Kevin Sharer will retire as Amgen’s CEO in May, the WSJ reports. He’ll be replaced by current president and COO Robert Bradway, who will also take over the chairman role once Sharer leaves that position at the end of 2012.

More Pay for Home-Care Aides: Home-care workers would be guaranteed at least minimum wage as well as overtime pay — ending years of exemption from those protections — under a proposal from the Obama administration, the New York Times reports. Business groups tell the paper that the requirements, particularly the time-and-a-half wage for overtime, would raise costs for the industry and possibly cause companies to reduce workers’ hours.

Spin-Off Ahead: Covidien will spin off its pharma business, which makes bulk acetaminophen, opioid pain products and other drugs, in order to focus on its larger medical-device business, the WSJ reports. After a spinoff the drug business would have about $2 billion in annual sales while the more profitable device business would have about $9.6 billion.

Online Survey: Research published in the Journal of Adolescent Health and based on surveys of 10- to 17-year-olds suggests fewer young people are receiving unwanted online sexual requests and unwanted exposure to online pornography, the Los Angeles Times’ Booster Shots blog reports. Still, there was a slight increase — from 9% in 2005 to 11% in 2010 — in the number of youths reporting online harassment, the LAT says.